Having a Second Child Ended My Peer Marriage
The equal partnership we enjoyed for nearly a decade was obliterated with the arrival of our second child, so we’re taking steps to bring the balance back.
It’s Ok. No one’s perfect.
Teaching Empathy
We may not be virtuosos of compassion at birth, with a little effort, we can squeak out enough to be a positive force in the world.
I Said What We Should Never Say
I want to say the thing we never say. The thing as parents we’ve all thought, but never say. The thing we curse ourselves for thinking and push deep into ourselves, but know every parent has at one point thought it, said it, wished it and hated themselves for doing so. It’s somewhere between “I…
Sleep Deprivation Lies
Each night I come to a crossroads in the mist of sleep deprivation.
Hair Hassle
I dread the daily hair hassle. With two girls and myself, I spend precious minutes each morning fighting tangles and attempting hair styles. Just brushing my daughters’ hair feels as impossible as grooming a pair of feral cats. My morning exercise usually consists of running through my house with a hairbrush after my fleeing toddler.…
The Great Screen-Time Battle
If it were up to my husband, it would be GO for screen time all the time.
Hot-Mess Humble
When sleep deprived and unable to move your thumbs, tidiness is the first virtue to go. You may have time to shower, on occasion, and keep the dishes from cultivating fungi, but chances are, you’re going to let a couple nights pass without picking up the toys or fighting with your kids to pick up. Then, at some point, you just decide not to bother. They are going to make a mess with them tomorrow. Just let them be. You begin the downward spiral to hot-mess humble without even feeling the suction.
Surmounting the Seventh-Grade Syndrome
For most of my childhood, I was your typical ugly kid: a dynamite blend of coke-bottle glasses, braces with neon rubber bands, and pasty-white, gangly limbs. I say this not in an attempt at false modesty or a consequence of deep self-loathing. If you were to look at my seventh-grade yearbook and point to the ugliest child, you…